Disclaimer: Inspired by various historical, fictional, mythological, mythical events and characters. This shitty work of a fiction is (currently being) written by me with various ideas and beliefs. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used in a very fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.....or maybe not after all. (Illuminati anyone?)

 Chapter 1 - The Start Of Something Amazing.

Raindrops fell slowly from the sky, as the ringing of bells could be heard throughout the faculty of a college.

St. Anthony’s College was one of the reputed institutions of learning situated in northern downtown of Shillong. Today the entire campus seemed noisier than its usual calm and peaceful environment.

“Alright, student’s classes are over. Even though you are getting a long-ass vacation this winter, I don’t want you to slack off on your studies at all, alright? That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to enjoy your days. Enjoy, of course, enjoy but not at the expense of your studies. Alright, I think I have said enough, take care and stay safe then.”

 The professor took her time to bid her last words of farewell before she swiftly took her stuff and move out of the room. Nobody seemed to pay attention to her words though.

The entire class got wild as shouts and laughs could be heard from everywhere.

In the midst of all this, seated in one of the last benches was a youth with an outer appearance of 17-18 years, tall figure smiling.

 His single strand of unruly hair was hanging down in front of his forehead. He possessed the charm of a male, especially with his careless and eyes that allowed him to possess an unspeakable attractiveness.

“Ha….finally freedom. For at least 4 months”

Lantis sighed deeply as he looked at the schedules on his smartphone.

No more classes to take, no more activities or work to do. Just go home and watch porn.

The best course of action, yep. Heard Ava Addams is gonna release her new porn video soon, can’t miss that shit at all.

He sat for a while, drowned in his own thoughts when he heard someone retort behind him.

“Hey! Mofo, what’s with you sitting all alone like a sage? I bet you are thinking something perverted. Listen to this shit, Marshmellow’s new track is lit as fuck.”

 It was his closest friend and bench mate, Raphael Rosing.

Lantis looked at Raphael, then on his headphones before he took and put it on his ears. To be honest, Raph was in the same situation as Lantis, bored as fuck.

“Hmm….nice, but I am still hard core on Lione.”

Lantis replied as he returned the headphones back to Raph.

“To each to his own, I guess then. So, any plans for the coming days?”

“Not particularly anything specific. You?”

 Silence reigned between the two for a while, but a moment later, a slightly excited Raphael’s voice woke up a drowsy Lantis who was slowly falling asleep on his desk.

“Hey, I got an idea!”

“What, man, your bro is tired. Don’t bother me for a while.”

“You are going to regret it, kid. You heard about that new ass game from Ninja Theory which was released a few weeks ago and is already selling like hot cakes, breaking the charts?”

Lantis, who was dozing off on his desk, looked curiously at Raphael with one of his eyes slightly opened.

“What about it? Is a kingdom building TI (Total Immersion) game that good?”

Virtual Reality Games were already in development since the beginning of 21st Century. Modular headsets that used one or two of the body senses for simulation, the visual and auditory sense by default came first, followed by olfactory and other senses. These were now known as EIS (External Immersion Simulator) or 1st Generation VR systems. Then came, headsets that began to use all the five senses for immersion, these were better than their previous counterparts but still lacked something for the hype it made. None the less, it was widely accepted by the masses to be the peak of virtual reality and thus was known as SEIS (Standard External Immersion Simulator).

But only after this project did real corporations sprung up that begun to take VR seriously and began to use it….for other purposes; made in Russia the CSBDIS (Case Sensitive Brain Direct Immersion Simulator) technology was the first of its kind used for military training. Instead of using 5 senses for simulation, it directly used the brain to project the simulation to the host itself. It was a very risky process but ultimately…rewarding.

Companies specialized in Virtual Reality systems bought this technology and implemented it on their own systems. Thus, after years of brainstorming and development came the apex of true virtual reality that fucked even the systems that boasted 100% or 200% immersion, even though it was also expensive on the same level of a supercomputer. This was named SITIS (Standard Internal Total Immersion Simulator). It was much safer than any other VR systems, more immersive than the reality itself. Thus, they are now known as 4th Generation VR systems.

“Dude, it’s not your typical VRMMO shits. It is an AFS with real-time strategy mechanics and grand strategy elements. I have read the reviews and it looks dope. You can immerse yourself; do everything you want, anything you want.”

Raphael replied with a look as if he was being wronged unjustly.

Indeed, Raphael was very right in this aspect, just like how VR headsets developed. Software development also progressed with the same speed. MMO and RPG were the two things that started it all in the consumer market. But with time came limitations. RPG’s began to grow boring and could not keep up with the pace of hardware race. With the line between reality and virtual reality merely just a boundary, people began to yearn for total freedom and the ability to do everything, not just based on levels. What we all like to call realism? This was, of course, more yearned by those introverts, socially disadvantaged people that stay in their home all day and like to do things in their own way. Thus came, the widely popular new genre, AFS (Alternative Free Style). It started as a sub-genre of RPG as it borrowed heavy elements from it but quickly became its own genre. It allowed the people to do whatever they want however they want to. No restrictions on levels or anything as long as they followed the basic codes. Such as, one can make a tank in an RPG and the system will do not shit as long as they know how to make it of course or throw another nuke bomb in an apocalyptic world if you are enough knowledgeable to actually make a bomb. You are your OWN master in an ever-growing open world with limitless opportunities, which happens to be the aim of the genre itself.

“Oh, if it’s AFS then you have got my interest. Otherwise, everyone and their mother with their grandparents play VRMMORPG these days. Got bored with that shit, tell me what is this all about?”

“It is a joint venture of Squaresoft Assembly, GIGA and Ninja Theory. Naturally, it will be epic. You are thrust into a world of wilderness where you have to fend for yourself. Do various stuff, control your own tribe, Lead battles against other factions etc. etc. Check out this catalog I have here, you should be lucky I am your bro. Normal peasants can’t even dream to have this piece of paper.”

Lantis ignored his reply completely and took the catalogue from Raphael’s hands.

He focused his eyes on the paper for a while, but a few moments right after he suddenly stood up from his bench and began to curse Raphael loudly without a pause.

“The FUCKING HECK IS THIS SHIT!! Its minimum requirements are all flying over the roof. Are you fooling this father by giving me a catalog of NASA supercomputers? 7TB VRAM? 7th gen Octa Core Processor? 360F Nerve Modular?”

Raphael smirked as he responded to his cursing friend.

“As I said this game is not for mere plebeians. You need dedication for this shit, thank the gods for at least there are no microtransactions in the game. And didn’t you upgrade your gear the previous month to next-gen? Was it a lie then?”

“Your father lied! All the nine generation of your ancestors lied! Hmph, hmph….what do you know? My sexy baby is a beast. It’s the HELIX (E-18 M9) Snaplight Nostradamus Premium Edition. Only 20 units were made in India, I just happened to buy one because of connections. It still cost me a fortune, even though I have yet to assemble it. As you can see, I have barely passed the optimum requirements here. What is so special about this game?”

Raphael pitifully looked at Lantis and replied,

“Such a show-off you are. It’s a pity even though your model is good, I won the race here. HELIOS G22-833 Model GigaDragon Platinum Edition directly pre-ordered from the U.S, this is the kind of standard you should have here. Nothing but the very best; anyway, you can run the game that’s all it matters. I reckon we can’t meet each other during the game, at least for the first few stages….do yourself a favour and work hard. You will see for yourself then, what is so damn special about this game. Be wary though, I heard the community is brutal and toxic. Much better if you go solo, it is not guild-based anyway. We can make a federation, later on, both of us. Buy the game and the memory core today at the Alive game store; I heard it’s on sale today.”

Lantis nodded his head as he watched him. Raphael was a pro gamer; the game must be up-to-the-mark if he praised it so much. No harm in trying it then.

Lantis closed his smartphone and packed his bag, preparing for an early leave from college.

One can’t go late on a sale after all,

He stood up as he began to reason with himself. In the midst of his, Raphael’s voice who was already heading out of the room was heard.

“Oh, and don’t come looking for a guide to me tonight! I will be very busy with the game, you know.”

As if he was running away from the campus, Lantis hurried towards a particular direction from the road.

“Good thing, alive is very nearby my house. I can take the game directly while I am at it, saves me quite a bit of time.”

Down the Nazareth lane where large shops lined both sides of the road, there was a long queue of people. Lantis already expected this, and he directly ignored the line and went inside from the staff entranceway.

“Lantis! you again! How many damn times do I have to tell you to stand in the fucking queue and wait for your turn?”

The manager of the store, Veera was a very familiar figure to Lantis.

 It was after all a basic rule for all gamers, to befriend a storekeeper who runs a gaming merchandise store whenever one had the chance. Cherish the friendship as if he is your own brother and you won’t regret it indeed.

Lantis made sure to fully-use the perks of this so-called “brotherly bond” to its fullest potential.

“Got no time for this shit, I have money and desire to buy something and that’s what it matters. Show me the way and I will follow the rules, I promise.”

Veera sighed and rubbed his forehead in irritation but then he sinisterly looked at Lantis and smirked,” You never learn. You came here a few days ago to upgrade your VRware and to buy other stuff. Therefore, I conclude from the premises that you came for something specific. Interesting, follow me and get ready to sell all your kidneys. It might come handy.”

“We shall see.” Lantis nonchalantly followed Veera as he replied.

Veera took him towards a receptionist to assist him in his needs and then went somewhere else.

“Hello, welcome to Alive, your one stop for all your gaming needs. I am Tina; can you please provide your ID for the verification process?” The receptionist gave him a professional smile and waited for his reply.

“Well, Veera is my ID. Isn’t that enough?” Lantis’s corner of his mouth slightly hooked up as he started to appreciate the sight of this young lady. Appreciating the female sex is an inherent basic enjoyment that came in the male sex itself and Lantis was not an exception to this rule.

The receptionist elegantly smiled, before she replied, “Good sir must be joking. I know about your so-called bond with the boss. I am asking for your ID, to know about the various licensing and essential details that will help me know about your body. Things like how much pressure your body can take while in dive mode? Or if your body has any issues that we should know of, kinda things like that.”

Lantis, of course, knew about all this shit. He was just trying to amuse Tina for a bit.

 “Oh, then please take my ID, my Madame, and see it well.”

Tina calmly took his ID and began to read its few pages for a while. She then put a stamp and signed her name on it before returning it to him.

“Alright, with this we are clear from all the legal stuff. Tell me, what do you need Sir?”

Lantis thought for a while and looked around the gaming charts on the reception desk. He did some calculations in his mind and replied calmly.

“Well, for a first I will need a memory core with better acceleration and more power than the previous one I bought here and I want this new game called Total War Online with the Warchief’s EC (Essential Content), Rise of Civilisation’s DLC (Deluxe Content), Valley of the Dawn PC (Premium Content) and the SITIS compatibility tools that comes with it. I will like to use credit for the payment please.”

Indeed, he left no stones unturned here. It was a wise decision to use his bank accounts for this transaction, otherwise, his puny purse was sure to suffer a huge impact from this costly blow.

“Alright, I got it. Your machine can already run the game pretty well, but you want it to run smoothly like butter huh? Well, for the optimum settings. How about the new Alienware Ultra Aviator or the Geonix Aerial Optimus model? It's benchmark test results are quite good, Geonix is cost-effective, Alienware gives better performance but has maintenance issues.”

“Alright, Geonix is the way to go then, the blue edition, please. I will like to check out.”

After the checkout, Tina returned the card with a receipt to Lantis.

Lantis' heart was bleeding and he was on the verge of coughing blood.

So much money wasted just for the sake of better performance and show-off.

“Sheesh, it’s alright boy. There comes a time in every gamer’s life when he has to make a choice. I have made my choice and I don’t need to regret it at all…at least not right now.”

While consoling himself that it was the right thing to do. He took the receipt and the credit card that seemed all too heavy for him now.

“Miss, can you give me your contact details? It will help you ease the sorrows of a poor man.”

Lantis tearfully looked at Tina’s eyes hoping to get a positive answer out of her.

Tina smiled as she took out a card from her pocket, “sure, here it is. You can contact me on Whatsapp, no personal stuff though.”

Lantis instantly felt better as he took her card. This fellow’s mood swings were quite terrifying, one minute he was on the verge of crying and the next as if he was going on in his honeymoon.

“Thank you for the service, perdere Tina.”

“Oh, it was my pleasure signore, Lantis. Please do come back next time here.”

Ah! An open-minded beauty with brains that is also into computers with a good humour, not something you really see every day indeed.

With this thought racing on his mind, he quickly left the store.

Today was really a good day after all. Let's make it even better…..

shall we??.....